PoGO – Pokémon Go: Darkrai as Raid Boss - Counter Guide

What a surprise … Not ^^ For Halloween 2021, Darkrai will also return to the Pokémon Go Raids – and this time, with luck, as a Shiny! We tell you with which current counters you can best send Darkrai to the boards.

Update from October 8, 2021: For Halloween 2021 in Pokémon Go, an old acquaintance is returning to the challenging Tier 5 Raids, and of course it’s the legendary Unlight Pokémon Darkrai. From October 22, 2021 at 10:00 am to November 5, 2021 at 10:00 am, it will make itself at home in the Raids and can be challenged by you to battle.

Darkrai will be making two special appearances this year. First, a Darkrai captured during the Halloween event will have the charge attack Mud Bomb for the first time ever. For that reason alone, you’ll want to add the Mon to your collection already. And secondly, Darkrai can come across you as a Shiny. Well, who’s going to say “no” to that? Take the chance to grab Darkrai! And to help you do it efficiently, we’ve updated the best counters for Darkrai! Good luck with the hunt!

Actual counters for Darkrai

Meistagrif with counterattack and blast
Lucario with counter and aurasphere
Mega-Bibor with bug bite and cross shear
Machomei with counter and balancing blow
Hariyama with counter and balancing blow
Zacian, Heroic Warrior with Twitch Strike and Hugger
Skaraborn with counter and vielender
Togekiss with charm and magic glow
Kapilz with counterattack and blast
Toxiquak with counter and punch
Lauchzelot with counter and close combat
Guardevoir with charm and magic glow

Original news on October 17, 2019: The extremely popular mysterious Pokémon Darkrai from the 4th game generation may make its first appearance in Pokémon Go as part of the 2019 Halloween event. The Unlight-type pocket monster will appear in Tier 5 Raids during this event, and most likely at the Legendary Raid Hour on October 23 and 30, 2019. You’ll have a chance to battle Darkrai during this first opportunity until November 1, 2019, at 10 p.m. We’ll tell you what to expect in the battle in our Darkrai counter guide.

Pokémon Go: Darkrai as a raid boss

As mentioned above, the mysterious Pokémon Darkrai is of the Unlight type, which is why it takes more damage from Pokémon of the Fighting, Fairy, and Beetle types. However, Darkrai can use not only the Unlight attacks Standpauke (instant attack), Finte (instant attack) and Finsteraura (charge attack), but also the Spirit attack Spukball and the Fighting attack Fokusstoß (both charge attack). The most difficult attack to use is Spookball, which hits your fighters like a speeding truck.

Ideally, if you’re in a small group, attack on a cloudy or rainy day, because Darkrai’s Focus Blast will do more damage (on a cloudy day), but so will your Fighting and Fairy Mon (on a cloudy day). In the rain, your Beetle Pokémon really pack a punch. If you attack in foggy weather, Darkrai will be boosted to level 25, and that means the Mystery Mon’s Unlight and Spirit attacks will hurt quite a bit – keep that in mind. If you want to defeat the pocket monster, you should go into battle with at least four to seven trainers. Darkrai has 22,500 HP, a high defense and high attack values at the same time. So you should be prepared to need all sorts of enliveners. In simulations, the following Pokémon have proven to be the best counters against Darkrai:

Machomei with the attacks Counter and Balancing Blow
Togekiss with the attacks Charm and Spell Glow
Hariyama with the attacks Counter and Blast
Toxiquak with the attacks Counter and Blast
Skaraborn with the attacks Counter and Close Combat
Kapilz with the attacks Counter and Sweeping Blow
Lohgock with the attacks Counter and Focus Strike
Granbull with the attacks Charm and Cuddle
Guardevoir with the attacks Charm and Spell Glow
Flambirex with the attacks Foot Kick and Focus Kick
Yanmega with the attacks Beetle Bite and Beetle Growl
Pinsir with the attacks Beetle Bite and Cross Scissors
Lucario with the attacks Counter and Close Combat
Scherox with the attacks Wrath Blade and Cross Scissors

Against Darkrai’s Focus Strike, you are relatively safe with Guardevoir and Togekiss, because the fairy types receive less damage from combat attacks, and the two Mon then perform better than Machomei and Hariyama.

Pokémon Go: Catch Darkrai

Once you have successfully completed the battle against Darkrai, you will have the chance to banish the mon into your Pokéball. At level 20, Darkrai has 2,136 CP at 100% IV values. If Darkrai is boosted to level 25 in foggy weather, it will have 2,671 CP at perfect 100% IV levels.

Pokémon GO

Pokémon Go is the mobile spin-off of Nintendo’s popular Pokémon game series for Android and iOS. It is a so-called “location-based game”, i.e. a game that uses the player’s immediate surroundings. It is based on the principle of augmented reality.

Pokémon Map: Between landmarks and sights

Pokémon Go uses a Global Positioning System (GPS) to determine the player’s location and displays it on a map that also represents the playing field. The map is based on OpenStreetMap maps. The game is played mostly outdoors and uses landmarks, landmarks and other notable or eye-catching objects in the world to position either PokéStops or arenas there for you to battle for supremacy. Join either Team Intuition (Team Yellow, Zapdos), Team Wisdom (Team Blue, Arktos), or Team Daring (Team Red, Lavados). Under their flag you can then fight for the arenas, which are placed at hotspots like churches or similar. Pokémon can appear anywhere, though.

Pocket monsters visible on the Pokémon Go Map are randomly loaded into the game’s virtual map by the game server. If several players are playing in the same location, each player can see and catch the Pokémon independently of the others.

Pokémon Go Updates, News, Raids and More

The developers at Niantic regularly provide Pokémon Go with new updates or special raids that should only be tackled in a group of several people. The Pokémon Go Raids are therefore very popular, as they also offer the prospect of particularly rare Pokémon. For example, in the past, legendary Pokémon could always be caught on special occasions (Pokémon Go events). For particularly eager mobile or smartphone Pokémon trainers, there is also an external IV calculator, such as the online tool from Pokemon.gameinfo.io or on Pokefans.net, to check the values of your Pokémon.